Legislator wants no Poles dancing in miniskirts

Published: 07 May 2007

A Catholic member of Poland's Parliament, Artur Zawisza, is proposing a
ban on miniskirts as part of a campaign against "enticement to sex".

Der Spiegel
reports that Mr Zawisza has announced plans for a bill that would ban
miniskirts and other "enticements" - with the goal of reducing street
prostitution. But the move is also part of a wider culture war.

He
also wants to ban miniskirts as well as heavy makeup and see-through or
low-cut blouses in a proposal he says is aimed at prostitutes.

His initiative would rob Polish streetwalkers of a means of advertising, he says, according to Newsweek Polska.

Prostitution is legal in Poland and Zawisza admits the ban might have a chilling effect on women who are not prostitutes.

"It
is possible that a pretty girl on the way home from a disco might get
arrested," he said, but he trusted Polish police to "tell the
difference between respectable women and women with loose morals."

Zawisza has lobbied the Justice Ministry for months to back his proposals, according to Newsweek.
In the meantime he and a handful of other conservative Catholics have
left the ruling Law and Justice Party to form Right of the Republic.

According to Der Spiegel,
the last miniskirt ban in Europe dates to 1967, when a Greek military
junta under General Pattakos banned both miniskirts and beards.